Home Improvement: Take the time to teach your kids basic home improvement too! |
- Take the time to teach your kids basic home improvement too!
- What kitchen reno feature do you love/hate or wish you had/hadn't done?
- My sister bought a lemon (KS)
- Hanging heavy punching bag
- Should your pantry be near your basement?
- About to get some foundation work done....
- My recently installed drywall ceiling is already cracking!
- Pex Plumbing
- Bathroom exhaust fan doesn’t vent anywhere
- Advice on transforming an unfinished 60s basement to a bedroom [Images included)
- Washer on 2nd story shakes the house
- Can I caulk over grout in my bathtub?
- Utility Tub Drain - Help me Find the Source of Drainage Odor
- Can I repair the drywall around an outlet box with just tape and mud in this kind of situation?
- Will contractors take a project with prepurchased materials?
- Help! Receptical stopped working after changing
- Help. Broken HVAC duct vent.
- Help, curtain rod fell
- Wall heater tripping internal "breaker"
- Install downdraft vent in island with full size slide in range.
- My ceiling fan has started shaking. No, not wobbling—shaking.
- Stagnant air in my home - how to resolve this issue?
- Crooked Roof
- Help identifying bugs
- Double action hinge, not spring loaded (update)
| Take the time to teach your kids basic home improvement too! Posted: 22 Oct 2020 10:17 AM PDT As a kid I loathed having to help my step dad with projects around the house. I helped him redo wires, plumbing, drywall, insulation, sub floor, change light fixtures, you name it I did some of it with him. After owning my first home for two years I've used almost all of it at some point and I couldn't be more thankful now that I had that experience with him. I've saved thousands of dollars doing my own roof, privacy fence, laminate flooring, drywall, and some plumbing issues. I know not all of these things are going to come up to teach to your kids but I know my wife's family had plenty of these things come up and she is constantly amazed at how much random stuff I can fix for a 26 year old because she has no idea how to do any of them. It made me realize that I'm not the majority with knowing these things and thought I should pass along to you all how much it will mean to your kids in the future, it's certainly something I will be doing with my kids one day. Edit: Thanks for my first award kind stranger! Edit 2: I love seeing all the stories from working with relatives in their past, I went to dinner and came back to more than I expected but I'm going to read them all! [link] [comments] |
| What kitchen reno feature do you love/hate or wish you had/hadn't done? Posted: 22 Oct 2020 06:03 PM PDT We are gearing up to totally gut and redo our kitchen in a few months. I already have somethings at the top of my list but just wanted to hear from people what were the things that really made your kitchen functional/perfect for you? Any regrets? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Oct 2020 08:37 PM PDT Hi all, I know that this post is getting into the weeds and may be difficult to answer but I'm hoping to get a feel for what my sister is dealing with. She is a 26 year old single mom who bought her first home on Oct. 5. She has lived with my parents up to this point and has spent the time since closing scraping popcorn ceilings, patching drywall and painting. This is a tri-level home and today while she is at the house, in the basement, she leaned against the wall. The drywall caved under the pressure. She called the home warranty company and a plumber came out to find that the main water line is leaking, at the shutoff valve as it enters the house. He said there is water between the walls in 2 of the 3 levels. Apparently he discovered that the pipes were corroded throughout and when he shut off the main the valve broke. So the drip will continue until a repair happens. Again according to the plumber, this is not something that happened overnight and has been an issue for a long time. There was extensive mold between the walls as well. I wasn't there and unfortunately have sparse details. I asked her to get me a copy of every document she signed and contact legal aid to discuss potential options. Again, I realize this is going to be a difficult question to answer but there has got to be a path to fixing this. She closed on this house 17 days ago and is facing a repair that will cost 1/3 of the home's value right out of the gate just to ensure the home is livable. She contacted her realtor and she suggested filing a claim with homeowners insurance and "dealing with the hiccup." I get buyer beware but this is absolutely insane, right? My thoughts are that someone involved in selling this home had to know that this, or something like this, was going on. There has got to be a failure to disclose a known issue here and I truly don't know where to go to help her. She did have an inspection and appraisal done before close, though I know that doesn't mean much. Has anyone here dealt with anything similar? Have you found a resolution or were you SOL? Does anyone have advice on how to approach or even where to begin in addressing this? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Oct 2020 07:45 PM PDT Hi all, Would I be able to hang an 80 or 100 lb heavy punching bag from this beam in my garage ceiling? [link] [comments] |
| Should your pantry be near your basement? Posted: 22 Oct 2020 07:26 PM PDT I apologise if this question doesn't fit this sub but I was wracking my brain for like 15 minutes trying to think of a better sub and couldn't so if this doesn't belong please point me in the right direction, thanks. So my grandmother's house is over 150 years old and it was built with the pantry right above the basement with the only access point to the basement being through the pantry itself (excluding the window). This was done in order to keep the pantry cool enough to keep food from spoiling in but not as cold as the basement to avoid the food freezing in some spots but not others. This is really great for 35°C summers because the temperature of the pantry never exceeds 20-25°C (aka "room temperature") and the basement remains cold year-round. This is something I've always been fond of and when doing little sketches for a future "dream" house I'd like to build and hopefully live in, I always automatically included the pantry-basement combo, along with the kitchen being close by but not so close that the basement actually affects the kitchen in any way other than convenience. This is a really rough sketch of the idea I have in my mind. (side note: the top and right-hand walls are outside walls, in case that makes a difference, I don't really know) It hadn't occurred to me until I watched a video on getting rid of mice that keeping the basement so close to the pantry could prove to be a bit risky and dangerous so I'm just wondering whether or not that would be dangerous and risky when it comes to pests or if I'm just over thinking it since it's never been a problem for my grandmother. [link] [comments] |
| About to get some foundation work done.... Posted: 22 Oct 2020 08:53 PM PDT Bought a house about a year ago knowing it had foundation issues ( concrete slab type foundation ). We used those to negotiate the price down significantly. After getting an engineer's recommendation and talking to several foundation repair companies we went with a company that had a lifetime warranty, steel piers driven into the bedrock to level the foundation. The house is getting lifted on almost all sides anywhere from .5 to 1.8 inches. The engineer couldnt guarantee there wouldnt be issues with lifting the slab. The company ( as well as the ones we didnt go with ) said they doubted there would be any plumbing issues afterwards. However I feel like that may be part of the sales pitch too. From anyones experience/knowledge does a lift this small cause plumbing issues? What should I anticipate plumbing wise? Im not so much worried about wall cracks and doors not closing, this house is a fixer upper and we are planning to remodel most of this anyway to make a profit on it in the long run. Im mainly concerned about a possible several thousand dollar plumbing repair being needed after the lift. Our plumbing as of now, has no leaks or issues ( weve had hydrostatic and camera inspection recently ). Is there any other plumbing issue to be concerned about besides the freshwater line coming in and the sewage going out? ( Outside of the house there is no plumbing lines other then those 2 ). The plumbing is original pipes, and was there before the settling per the previous owner. [link] [comments] |
| My recently installed drywall ceiling is already cracking! Posted: 22 Oct 2020 05:46 PM PDT I've been working on remodeling the upper level of a 1.5 story home in the upper midwest. I had new drywall hung on the walls/ceiling. All of the drywall has since been taped and painted. Unfortunately, there's already multiple cracks showing in the ceiling and it's only been a month since taping and painting. The cracks are thin (for now) and pretty straight and seem to follow the joints between sheets of drywall in the ceiling. I could always re-mud and paint, but I'm concerned that it won't fix whatever underlying problem caused it to crack so soon. Any ideas on what I could do to permanently fix this? I sistered in some new ceiling joists to give a flat surface to hang the drywall on to get a level ceiling... Any chance this cracking is related to that? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Oct 2020 03:43 PM PDT I live in Ohio. And am remodeling the basement of my newly bought home. Removed all the drywall and all my water lines for my bathrooms an kitchen are all exposed now. So I've decided to replace all the plumbing with Pex with a manifold. My questions are: If i do a homerun (hot and cold) to my kitchen into a sub manifold. Do i still need standard shut off valves for water lines if i just have everything run off the sub manifold? So they would already have a shut off themselves off of the sub manifold. I wouldn't have the manifold in the wall, I'd have it out of the drywall, and prob underneath the sink. Thoughts? Maybe doing the same thing in the bathroom. Idk. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!! Okay. So I am gonna have one hot water line And one cold water line to the kitchen. Which will have a sub manifold. Under the sink. So I can branch off of that for all of my appliances. But would I still need to out a standard shut off if the manifold does that already? [link] [comments] |
| Bathroom exhaust fan doesn’t vent anywhere Posted: 22 Oct 2020 07:09 PM PDT We just bought a house and we noticed that our bathroom fan wasn't doing a good job controlling moisture during a shower, so we were looking into replacing it with a better quality one. Upon examination, it looks like the fan is literally just installed in a small recess in the ceiling just big enough for the light, it's not pulling the moisture anywhere. Is this something I can DIY without ripping out the ceiling and drywall and making it a huge project? It's on the first floor so it seems like I'd have to vent it to the wall rather than through the roof. Our city code requires it to vent outside, and I'm so upset with everything our inspector missed, including this and a collapsed pipe in basement bathroom. [link] [comments] |
| Advice on transforming an unfinished 60s basement to a bedroom [Images included) Posted: 22 Oct 2020 08:43 PM PDT Hi all, Currently, I am planning on moving into the basement of my house so my younger brother can have my room as we are short one bedroom in the house. My Mom does not feel that this is a "liveable space". I don't see how it could be unsafe to sleep in the basement but I do feel that it isn't a nice area at all. I'd like to improve it in any way that I can. Here is a link with pictures for an idea of what it looks like. First of all, we are renting the house therefore I do not believe I can make permanent changes such as painting walls or installing carpet all around. I do have money (up to about 400-500) to fix the area to the best of my abilities, but it is just low because I am in highschool with a fast food job. I do have more saved up and can increase the budget by a couple more hundred if it's for a good reason. Currently, much of the basement is a storage area with the exception of the left side. The left side has a couple couches, a TV, and a desk with an Xbox for my brother to play in. This desk will be taken out and I will be able to move around the Television and couches to my liking. I'd like to remove the desk, shelf, and workout machine from the right side of the basement to make that the bedroom section. There are a couple problems for the basement that I need this subreddit's help for:
I know nothing about home improvement therefore I just need any help I can get on making the basement better. I would greatly appreciate if you all could check out the pictures and see if there is anything that you know a way to improve upon. Thanks everyone. [link] [comments] |
| Washer on 2nd story shakes the house Posted: 22 Oct 2020 07:46 PM PDT We moved our washer and dryer upstairs from the basement. They're front loading, LG brand. They're great, but when the spin cycle starts the whole house shakes. The walls vibrate and one evening I was in the bath and there were waves. We have the washer on rubber noise reduction pads, but they don't help. For the time being, I put the spin cycle on the lowest setting so our house doesn't come crumbling down. We're thinking about switching to top loading. Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks! (First time posting here, so this isn't the place or allowed, please let me know) [link] [comments] |
| Can I caulk over grout in my bathtub? Posted: 22 Oct 2020 03:42 PM PDT Maintenance people had to repair part of our bathroom and grouted around the bathtub and it's already got cracks. Can/should I caulk over it to seal it up better? [link] [comments] |
| Utility Tub Drain - Help me Find the Source of Drainage Odor Posted: 22 Oct 2020 02:54 PM PDT Hello home improvement! Background: We purchased our home (1972 construction, NE Ohio) about a year and a half ago. No real issues we haven't been able to handle as of yet, but one oddity... Our basement utility tub produces an odor similar to sewer gas, most typically when the washing machine (which drains into said tub) is running but we think also during heavy rain, or heavy use of the utility tub faucet. Brainstorming: Based on what I can see of the drain: https://imgur.com/a/9qw4YwF my thoughts on a possible cause of the odor are the following:
My first thought was to just scorched earth this. Remove the drain pipe, install a trap above grade (as best as can be done given the space constraints and fact that this is a floor drain), install a studor style vent and then move on. My question for everyone is: have you ever seen a setup like this? Do you think the odor is related to the physical drainage setup, or the washing machine? Do you think this is worth trying to fix on my own, or is professional help recommended? [link] [comments] |
| Can I repair the drywall around an outlet box with just tape and mud in this kind of situation? Posted: 22 Oct 2020 06:38 PM PDT Take a look at this mess. It's not mounted to a stud (it's inbetween them), so this is just floating and not attached to anything. I'm holding it in place to show how big the vertical gap is. I've seen people repair this before with mud+tape or an outlet patch, but none of the videos I watched showed people screwing into the dried mud. If I go that route, will the mud hold or will it just crack? Or is there another approach aside from replacing and recutting the drywall? [link] [comments] |
| Will contractors take a project with prepurchased materials? Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:48 PM PDT My wife and I decided to replace our cracked shower pan, but due to the configuration of our bathroom we had to special order the right size for the new shower pan and wall panels. I consider my self competent at household projects, but I've done very little plumbing, so we were going to offer to pay a close family friend for help. Due to outside circumstances he is no longer available, so we were going to hire a company my parents have worked with in the past. My only question is, will this company insist on buying their own showerpan and such, or will it be okay if we have that stuff already bought and paid for (since it took a month and a half to ship)? [link] [comments] |
| Help! Receptical stopped working after changing Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:47 PM PDT I recently changed all light switches and outlets in my house to a more modern style basically just wiring the new ones exactly how the old ones were. Eveything is working fine except for 1 outlet any ideas what it may be. The outlet is in a bedroom the light and and other outlet on same breaker still work. The wiring for this one only had 2 wires black white and a ground. I'm not 100 certain if it was this one but I do remember on one of them the ground wire wasn't hooked up on old outlet and I hooked it up on new one thought it was the right thing to do but now after some research maybe I shouldn't have. Any ideas on what it may be? Thanks [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Oct 2020 05:43 PM PDT Hi all. I was browsing the internet when the vent on my ceiling fell off. The dry wall is basically a big hole now. The two circles in the picture is where the screws were held but the anchors used for the screws are...let's just say screwed. How can I fix this? Thanks in advance! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:28 PM PDT Hello, I'm not sure if this is the correct subreddit to post about this. If it's not, then please let me know! One side of my curtain rod fell today. I don't really know anything about this and want to know if this is something I can fix on my own? [link] [comments] |
| Wall heater tripping internal "breaker" Posted: 22 Oct 2020 09:22 PM PDT I have two wall heaters (one example - they aren't the same), that trip their internal "breakers" somewhat frequently, requiring me to remove the front panel and press the reset button. Other than cleaning them out, is there anything I can do to prevent this (they aren't blocked by anything)? Is there a readily available part I can replace, or do I have to replace the whole thing? If the latter, are the sizes of these things fairly standard so I can pull out the old one and put in the new one without doing drywall work? Not sure how old these ones are, definitely a few years, possibly a decade or more. [link] [comments] |
| Install downdraft vent in island with full size slide in range. Posted: 22 Oct 2020 05:37 PM PDT We bought a house with a very crappy Island with are redoing it but needs to be on a budget. We bought a standard slide in stove. We are having custom cabinets built. Counter is likely a 8x40" butcher block from Home Depot. Question is how difficult would it be to do. Most seen to be designed for cooktops and not ranges. I'd love a recirculator r so we didn't have to vent and avoid that cost as I mentioned budget. Would it be as simple of instead of 24" cabinets have 28" deep built. Counter is 39 or 40 deep and not concerned about bar seating. Thoughts suggestions and concerns appreiciated. Thanks folks. Previous owner had a range that had a downdraft built into the middle between the burnders, odd. So there is a whole in the floor but nut usable as it's in the middle of my current range. Sorry for the mess, just moving in. [link] [comments] |
| My ceiling fan has started shaking. No, not wobbling—shaking. Posted: 22 Oct 2020 05:26 PM PDT My ceiling fan has been working fine up until the past week. I'm not aware of anything that could have caused a change. Now, it's running fine, except every 30 seconds or so, the whole thing shakes. Not as if it's off balance, and not constant either. It only lasts a few seconds at a time. Any idea what could be causing this? [link] [comments] |
| Stagnant air in my home - how to resolve this issue? Posted: 22 Oct 2020 05:26 PM PDT In my home I live by myself with my 5 cats and despite keeping windows open often I always feel that the air inside my home is very stagnant and I think the humidity inside my home may effect that? I regularly have to turn on the air-conditioning to feel better but it's costing me far too much money My cats/pollen/dust aren't the problem for me, and I am not sure if they could be directly the cause, maybe a factor? nevertheless I simply am in need of some advice on ways to make my home feel fresh and less stagnated! [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Oct 2020 04:40 AM PDT Hey Redditors, I've been lurking for a year as I bought my first house in February. I always appreciate the advice! As mentioned I purchased my house in February. Immediately after I received emails from my insurance company that they did a drive by and saw a bunch of dead tree limbs on my roof. I need to have a roofer come out and certify the roof is in good shape by June or I'll lose insurance. COVID happens and they extend me to January. They also sent me pictures of my roof that they took from the road a week prior to closing with some shingles sticking up. The pictures I sent them, those broken shingles aren't there. The roof is less than 5 years old so I am not panicked. I finally got someone out to look at the roof last week. Appointment is at 12 and I get home 11:55 to a ladder against my house and a guy at the roofing truck. Odd. I introduce myself and he starts with "I wish I had better news for you. You need a new roof." Oh? "It's put on crooked." He proceeds to pull out his phone and show me pictures of the top of my roof. I wasn't even here when he went up. Im looking at the pictures and can't tell what he is seeing. Looking at my house from the road it doesn't look crooked... Personally I don't see the crookedness, and can't see it from the road. He's talking about how it's crooked and installed wrong. It's already got 2 layers so it needs to come up and be replaced. The first board of plywood is free but there's no signs of leaking or damaged boards from what he can tell. I am obviously going to get a second and third opinion, but is this a thing? A crooked roof? Should the guys price tag worry me that much? I showed him the shingles in question and how that's all the insurance company was looking for.. "Yeah, but then I have to put my name on it." Edit: Adding some photos of the house in question. It's tough to get photos of the roof as the front yard slopes down and the street is on a hill. These are from June I will try to get some better in the morning. pics Edit 2: Roof is in NJ Edit 3: View of top of roof from inspection in Feb. pic [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 22 Oct 2020 05:16 PM PDT I have found a bug twice over the last 6 months in my home and am kinda worried as I am unsure as what kind of bug it is. Anyone point me in the right direction? [link] [comments] |
| Double action hinge, not spring loaded (update) Posted: 22 Oct 2020 01:27 PM PDT So I ended up getting 8 regular hinges from home Depot that matched the general sizing from my sketch. Welded them together, cleaned them up, and it works like a charm! [link] [comments] |
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